The Liberal Democrats have said increasing the pupil premium and eligibility for free school meals (FSM) are the biggest priorities as they set out their plans for schools.
Education spokesperson Munira Wilson spoke to Tes about the party’s “Investing in our children’s future” policy motion, to be put forward at the party conference this week in Bournemouth, from 23-26 September 2023.
The party’s proposed education policies for schools and early years would amount to around £6 billion, Ms Wilson estimated, to be fully costed when the Liberal Democrats release their full manifesto.
“We want to talk about education as an investment,” Ms Wilson told Tes. “It’s an investment in our children’s potential, but also in our country’s future.”
She added that pupils and parents have been “let down” by the current government, and her party would set out proposals to “really start to tackle some of those challenges, particularly post-pandemic, and the damage that’s been done to children’s learning and mental health”.
The main proposals included in the Lib Dems’ plans for education and schools include:
Increasing pupil premium funding and extending FSM
The Lib Dems are proposing that pupil premium be extended to 16- to 18-year-olds.
“We pioneered and insisted that the pupil premium was introduced to try and start tackling that gap between the richest and the poorest students. We saw that gap was certainly narrowing and that’s now starting to reverse - so we want to reverse those real-term cuts to pupil premium,” Ms Wilson said.
Former schools minister David Laws said earlier this year that pupil premium needed to be increased to combat inflation since its implementation.
For FSM, the party wants eligible students to be automatically enrolled, and for eligibility to be extended to include all primary and secondary pupils whose families receive universal credit.
Mental health professionals in every school
”Mental health has long been a focus for the Liberal Democrats and, for me personally, since I got elected the focus is children’s mental health. We’re committed to putting a dedicated qualified mental health professional in every school, paid for by increasing digital tax,” Ms Wilson said.
A new workforce strategy
The Lib Dems are proposing increased funding for teacher training, and reforming the teacher pay review body to focus more on professional development and “make it properly independent”.
“We know that schools have essentially become the fourth emergency service when so many children are struggling with other issues,” Ms Wilson said.
She added: “Hunger and poor mental health exacerbate poor behaviour. That can be a real strain on teachers and is pushing many out of the workforce. I hope our package of proposal will ease the burden on teachers and encourage more to stay in the workforce.”
Ofsted reform and commission on qualifications
The Lib Dems support a scorecard approach to Ofsted inspections rather than a one-word judgement.
On qualifications, they want to set up a cross-party commission with input from teachers to look at curriculum and exam reform.
“Any reform needs to be generational, not a one-term political cycle reform,” Ms Wilson said. “I’m slightly surprised that Rishi Sunak is focusing on this now, when you see the crisis that is facing our schools.”
She added: “It’s certainly something that we should be looking to do going forward but, right now, with the recruitment and retention crisis, crumbling school buildings, children’s mental health and children turning up to school hungry - let’s start to really fix some of those immediate problems.”
Flexible catch-up funding
The Lib Dems want to give schools £390 million a year for permanent small-group tuition to aid post-pandemic catch-up. This would include ring-fencing some of the money from the proposed increased pupil premium to support catch-up for the most disadvantaged.
Ms Wilson added that the party proposed schools having “greater flexibility” in how catch-up money is spent regarding which children need it most and whether schools used internal or external providers.
Expanding school rebuilding
“We need to look at expanding the school rebuilding programme,” Ms Wilson said. “It’s not just reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete - we can’t have this situation where thousands of children are sitting in schools that aren’t fit for purpose.”
She added that the Lib Dems would reverse cuts to capital spending on schools, and make sure school funding saw a real-terms increase year-on-year.
“We’d also like to expand the provision of extracurricular activities so sport, music, drama and debating aren’t just for private schools,” Ms Wilson said.
